India’s indigenous Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) Tejas today made its debut at the 68th Republic Day parade at Rajpath.
The spectators were overawed when three Tejas fighter jets flew at a height of 300 metres from ground at a speed of 780 km per hour in ‘VIC’ formation despite overcast conditions.
The LCA Tejas is a single engine aircraft that was inducted into the Indian Air Force in mid-2016 after it went through years of rigorous trials.
Designed and developed by DRDO, ADA and HAL, the a highly manoeuvrable Tejas fighter aircraft also happens to be the first light combat aircraft with the ‘Made in India’ tag.
The LCA was earlier flown at the Indian Air Force Day last year. It was also flown at the IAF’s fire power demonstration Iron Fist, Aero India, and the Bahrain International Airshow.
Tejas, a fourth generation aircraft, can fly at 1,350 km per hour and is comparable to the world’s best fighters, including French Mirage 2000, American F-16 and Swedish Gripen.
The fighter jet was inducted into 45th Squadron of the Indian Air Force in July 2016 with two aircraft.
Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) plans to increase the production of Tejas from the present eight to 16 aircraft each year.
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